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Public tours of new elementary school scheduled for March 15, 16

Construction and school district leaders show Bemidji Area Schools staff around the future site of Gene Dillon Elementary in August. (Pioneer file photo)

If you go:

What: Public tours of Gene Dillon Elementary School construction site

When: 3:45 p.m. Thursday, March 15 and Friday, March 16

Where: Gene Dillon Elementary, at the intersection of Division Street West and Becida Road Southwest.

BEMIDJI—Bemidji Area Schools leaders have scheduled a pair of public tours of Gene Dillon Elementary, the district's soon-to-be-new home for fourth- and fifth- graders here.

District staff have scheduled a tour for school board members, district staff, and community members on March 15, and another on March 16. Board members have toured the site a handful of times.

District staff are scheduled to move in furniture and equipment this summer, and the building is expected to be ready for students by the time the next school year begins.

When the school opens, it'll be the culmination of years' worth of work. Bemidji voters approved $30 million in bonds for the project in 2014, and district staff have been working with Beltrami County and City of Bemidji staff since then to get it built. The school is still not part of Bemidji proper, and annexation is a prerequisite for it to use municipal sewer and water services.

Bemidji Area Schools maintains a live video feed of the Gene Dillon construction site: bemidji.k12.mn.us.

Joe Bowen covers education (mostly K-12) and American Indian affairs for the Bemidji Pioneer.

He's from Minneapolis, earned a degree from the College of St. Benedict - St. John's University in 2009, and worked at the Perham Focus near Detroit Lakes and Sun Newspapers in suburban Minneapolis before heading to the Pioneer.